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Annual Social Justice Symposium in Brebeuf

The students of Brebeuf College School hosted their 8th Annual Social Justice Symposium at the University of St. Michael’s College recently. Over 250 students and teachers from across Toronto came to learn more about the conference’s theme: “Keen to Be Green: Ecological Justice.” This topic was partly inspired by the Presentation Brothers’ environmental message discussed at their Chapter during the summer.

Keith Rodrigues, Co-President of the school’s Social Justice Club, noted that “in today's rapidly developing world, the environment is usually the least of everyone's concerns. As a Catholic teenager in Canada, I felt that ecological injustice is a pressing issue of this century.”

Following Mass in the historic St. Basil’s Church, students heard from two speakers with poignant messages of the need to take the environment seriously. Sister Mary Mallany IBVM, a Loretto Sister, spoke of the faith imperative in caring for creation, the Church’s encyclicals dealing with the environment and equality, and the ways youth can promote justice through involvement with the Earth Charter movement. Students then watched a CBC documentary on the Alberta oil sands, which are a major source of pollution in Canada and a contributor to global warming.

Bruce Cox, the Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, spoke next about his organization’s efforts to bring attention to environmental transgressions around the world and to debunk those who challenge the reality of climate change. Both speakers criticized the Canadian government’s recent decision to revoke the Kyoto Protocol.

This was Brebeuf’s eighth Symposium, which over the years has dealt with such social justice issues as homelessness, aboriginal rights, refugees, and the right to life. The event is organized by approximately twenty students in the school’s Social Justice club. Over the course of the school year, they will undertake a number of projects to highlight justice issues and give students ways of being involved in finding solutions.

In the end, Rodrigues hopes that the most recent Social Justice Symposium has empowered Toronto high school students towards being true stewards of the environment. He notes that “In keeping with St. James' ideas, ‘Faith without works is dead,’ and I hope that students have taken the initiative to do their part in saving the planet for generations to come.”

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Some of the participants at the symposium.